I hereby present to you, darlings, this thing I like to call The Revolution Of Creativity. I listened to the interview last night and took some notes for ideas (the titles in bold), and then this morning I started developing and writing them. I still have a bit more of work to do on some other ideas that are mostly technical definitions of how the hearting/recommending system works, and some more shit. But, since I'm the cook of the house I'm gonna leave that for after I'm done with lunch.

Of Finding hitRECord

In 2009, I started watching 3rd Rock From The Sun again before going to school in the morning. One day I realized I’d seen Joe in other movies but I couldn’t remember which ones, so naturally, I googled him. Clicking here and there eventually led me to hitRECord when it was only v3, and I have to say it was an impressively simple site and very easy to understand, which allowed me to go through a bunch of RECords before taking the decision of joining. This was around late august or early september. I’d written some short stories for Literature class that had had good feedback from teachers and classmates (one of my essays was published in the school magazine), but I was looking for a place on the internet where I could share them, although I didn’t want a blog. I finally decided to join one day when I heard Joe’s reading of Mushr’s poem Sad Green Tomato, which I loved because it was such an easy piece. I’ve found that in the area of Literature, teachers are always taking everything seriously and going by all the rules of analyzing they were taught by other teachers who are merely continuing a tradition, instead of allowing creativity to flow in a free and natural way. This is what got my attention of hitRECord, and it’s one of the things I love the most about it: our creative process is limitless in that by sharing a piece you know it’ll inspire somebody else to do something else with it, wherever that person may be and whatever that person can and will do with it.

Of joining

The first few days around hitRECord can be pretty weird for newbies, especially now that the layout is entirely different to the one we had in previous versions. I know that feeling of uncertainty about releasing your very first RECord because I felt it too, just like everyone did. It’s really a matter of being afraid of how people will take it, whether or not they’ll get it, and what’s going to happen next. It’s understandable, and I know I sound all grown up when I said this, but it’ll pass. Eventually it becomes natural to us that, for example, when we take a photograph, or shoot a video, or record some music or a sound, we think “I bet this could work with this other piece” and we don’t hesitate in sharing it. In September it’ll be my second anniversary as a hitRECorder and that’s the feeling I’ve had for most of the time I’ve spent around, that idea of not being afraid –or, strangely enough, ashamed— of something I’d written that can be truly silly (such as many of my Tiny Stories), or truly serious, and the hope that it’ll inspire a fellow to take it and remix it.

Of hitRECord itself

What can I say other than how truly beautiful it is to be part of all this collective insanity? It’s like a massive, online folie á deux type of delirium, whatever the French word for “massive” is. I’ve never really been one to take pride in what I do, and I think it’s because when I was younger (shit, I sound so old when I say it like that) I didn’t see writing as a serious thing to do because in Chile it isn’t taken as seriously as it should, as it happens with most of the work of the artistic area. I don’t know why, but apparently in this country you’re only taken seriously when your last name and/or your wallet is big enough to get your name on the newspaper without necessarily having created the art piece yourself. You could’ve just stolen the idea from somebody else but it doesn’t matter as long as you’re ridiculously rich, or at least enough to shut the creator up. That’s why I’m glad I’ve found and joined hitRECord. And also, because I write more in English than I do in Spanish. And don’t ask me why because to this day I still haven’t figured it out.

Of my first RECord

The very first RECord I released is a short story called I’m On A Train, which I also voiced in a somewhat sad way. It inspired fellow hitRECorder RichieMillennium to making a video remixing several other train-related videos and a piece of music, which eventually led Tori to editing the whole piece that was finally presented at Sundance, last year. That was exciting, to say the least. I remember being so happy my mom made me stop jumping and take several deep breaths. I remember how everyone in the little chatroom were congratulating me and telling me that their families and friends had seen the video and thought it was both sad and beautiful at the same time. Before that, I never imagined something I’d created would have such an effect on a large amount of people. I also never imagined it wouldn’t be only presented at Sundance, but also at following events. It still gives me the chills to know that, after almost two years, people are still watching it, whether live in a show or online. I should clarify that these chills are the positive, happy kind, and not the kind you get when you’re watching a really bad horror movie that scares you because the door opens right when you know it’s going to, but it still makes you jump.

Of Joe (note: work in progress)

As I said, I’ve known Joe from other movies, and thinking back I’m guessing I’ve known his acting side for ten years or so. I’m gonna go ahead and say he’s been a good director all this time. He’s worked with other artists before and I think that’s definitely helped him to form an idea of what a director should be like. Still, it’s contradictory to say that because hitRECord is a company like no other. It’s not like making a movie or recording an album because, first of all, we do everything online! Doing shows is a relatively new idea that became real for the first time thanks to Sundance. More than a company, it’s like a family, and more than a family I daresay it’s like the mafia of art. You join, you learn how it works, you start RECording, and then you’re done, you can’t leave. It’s like your imagination eventually grows to make you see things in a this-could-work-with-this way. But I was talking of Joe so back to that subject. As the director of hitRECord and the person who came up with this idea of collaborating online with other people, I think he’s done perfectly.

Of being a writer/artist

Lately, as a form of introduction, I’ve been saying I’m a full-time fiction writer and part-time student. It’s happened that most people who’ve heard that have slightly freaked out. I’m twenty years old and I’ve been writing fiction ever since I learned how to write, but before that I was already creating stories, only I didn’t have a way to record them. Because it’s an activity I love and take seriously, I say I’m a fiction writer first. It’s a contributing factor of my personality and it allows me to set a borderline with people who read and people who don’t read, because I’m not just a writer, I’m also a reader. I say “fiction” in particular because it’s happened to me in several opportunities that people think I write poetry because I’m a woman, which is either sexist or funny, or both. Or none, depending on who is reading. I also say “fiction” because that’s the area in which I move around every day. People who don’t read or create constantly can’t see beyond the reality they encounter when they wake up, and even in their dreaming state they tend to think that because it isn’t real it doesn’t exist. I try to stay as far away as I can from these people, because that attitude is catchy and I don’t want it for myself. When you’re around creative people (even if the only way to be around them is through the internet) you’re constantly inspired by what they make to make something yourself. I saw a pink shoe in the rails of the subway one morning on my way to college and I couldn’t help but wonder what the hell was it doing there. I can only hope somebody else saw it and thought similarly, but I’ll never know. Another thing about calling myself a writer is that most people think you’re only a writer, or an artist in general, only after you’re published. I now laugh when they say that because, as it happens, I have been published, and I couldn’t be happier about it. It’s the will of my creativity that impulses me to say “Hello, I’m a fiction writer” and feel like it’s the right thing to say about myself. If anything, that is right to say about myself.

Of getting paid

I hadn’t been paid before for something of my own creation, and it feels good to have a retribution, although that’s not the main reason why we do what we do. I think there comes a point in your life when you realize you can’t really help but do something you truly love doing, and you can’t stop yourself. I’ve been saying the same all this time. Joe used Walt Disney’s quote perfectly to explain it, because it’s like that with hitRECord: we make money to make more things.